Bibliography: leaves 122-145. / This dissertation examines the role of university libraries in academic support and development programmes in South Africa. It focuses on how libraries and librarians can assist under-prepared students whose educational backgrounds under apartheid have not equipped them for the transition from school to university. The socio-political, educational and library contexts are analysed in comparative perspective by looking at the experience of ethnic minorities in the United Kingdom. Issues of nation building and multi-culturalism in both Britain and South Africa are critically discussed, and the institutional aspects of professional librarianship are construed as the backdrop of user education in academic libraries. Academic development strategies in university libraries are reviewed under the rubric of affirmative action, racism awareness training, a multi-media environment, reading programmes and information retrieval and censorship. Recommendations are offered on the basis of an investigation of the literature on user education in libraries and its application to academic development for under-prepared students.

Bibliography: pages 237-246. / An investigation was undertaken into the attitudes held by library/information workers towards their profession because it was considered that the strength of these attitudes may affect not only the self-concept and work performance of individuals, but also the quality and dimensions of the support received by the profession from society. The study was conducted in two parts: the literature survey and the empirical investigation. The empirical investigation was limited geographically to the Western Cape region of South Africa.

eResearch, a term used in the international academic community since the early 2000s facilitates scholarly collaborative and interactive research by providing access to shared data, institutional repositories, research tools and services through the internet. eResearch initiatives are globally allowing researchers to collaborate using ICT. This paper will report on a study which sought to establish eResearch activities in Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria, identify the challenges faced by researchers in carrying out eResearch in their various work environments and propose a guideline for effective library support of such projects.16 participants were interviewed for this empirical study. These participants were drawn from 6 Departments cutting across four of the 13 University Faculties. The researcher used purposive and snowballing sample techniques. Interviews were transcribed and responses of all the respondents analysed based on the research questions. Eight collaborative eResearch projects were identified during the course of this study. The participants indicated that these projects took place within the University Community but across country boundaries. It is worth noting that the researchers that participated in this study engage in quality collaborations both within Africa and also beyond. Most of the researchers gained their skills and practices through personal development while on the job, therefore, there is a need to advocate the inclusion of eResearch methodology in postgraduate programmes. It is of concern that the researchers have not been able to appreciate the roles that the library can play in supporting their online research activities. To change this view, the library must proactively survey the various online research projects going on in the University and provide the necessary support. Thus, this paper will share some of the insights gained and recommend a number of initiatives a library could put in place to embed within eResearch projects – all in the interest of more effective research. / Mini Dissertation (MIT)--University of Pretoria, 2015. / Information Science / MIT / Unrestricted

No description available.

This bibliography on Robben Island covers the known history of the Island from its earliest discovery until 1920 when the Infirmary for lepers, lunatics and the chronically ill was finally abandoned. The bibliography does not claim to be exhaustive: illustrations and government publications have been excluded and no systematic search of newspapers was undertaken because of lack of time; newspaper articles are recorded only where the compiler was guided there by other references. The Cape Town archives contain a large number of documents - mainly official correspondence - which could not be included in this limited work, but which are relative to the Island's history. Annotations concerning the scope and content of the material have been made in nearly all cases. It was found to be impracticable to annotate certain of the works as fully as the others because of the vast amount of information they contained on all aspects of the Island's history. These works are Van Riebeek's journal, Theal's Histories, Moodie's Records and Leibbrandt's precis of the archives of the Cape of Good Hope.

Includes bibliography. / The purpose of this thesis is to analyse library programmes, facilities and services for undergraduates at South·African university libraries. Black students who arrive at university encounter a library for the first time and find using it a bewildering experience. Thus libraries must become more aware of undergraduate needs and play an increasing role in academic support, concentrating their services on the undergraduate and particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. This concern for undergraduate education prompted an evaluation of library provision for undergraduates. The broad hypothesis· being the better the facilities, the better the library services and the concomitant provision for undergraduates. The thesis examines the literature commencing with an outline of general library facilities (accommodation, collection, staffing, and financial support), as well as determining the role of the university library, and examining established library standards. Library services are identified, with particular emphasis on user education. The literature survey concludes with an in-depth examination of the development of undergraduate libraries and the arguments both for and against such libraries. The scope of the investigation is limited to three university libraries in a contiguous region of South Africa, and data was gathered via a detailed structured questionnaire. The empirical survey focuses on library programmes and attempts to identify specific provision for undergraduates.

Although the precursors of the South African technikons date back almost one hundred years, they became post-secondary institutions as recently as 1967. Their libraries have therefore had to be upgraded recently to meet the required educational level. With the technikon movement being so young, there has been little formal investigation of the information needs of the libraries' users. An investigation was therefore conducted into the information needs of lecturers at the Cape Technikon and the ability of the Library to meet those needs. The literature was examined and models formulated to clarify the concepts involved in (a) information and its communication, (b) users and their information needs, and (c) the evaluation of library services in their attempts to meet those needs. Previous studies were also examined to determine what variables should be examined. Various methodologies for an empirical investigation were considered; the survey method was chosen as most appropriate, and a questionnaire was developed to elicit lecturers' self assessment of the importance of specified information needs and their opinion of the Library's ability to meet those needs. Weighted average and percentage proportions were calculated and were used in producing tabulations of the data, profiles line graphs, histograms and pie charts. The data were then examined for inter-relationships; the results were compared with the results of previous surveys, and conclusions were drawn. The chief findings were that (a) discipline and work activity were the most important independent variables to influence information need; (b) work activity was determined largely by the need for technikon lecturers to change their subject fairly frequently, and by the low level of research at the time of the investigation; (c) the Library was an important source of information to the lecturers, and they were generally satisfied with the Library's services; (d) citation services were being under-utilised; (e) the Library proved to be inadequate in providing for a strong demand for monographs and for very recently published literature, in providing sufficient work and study space, and in providing adequate resources for research purposes. As a result the following recommendations were made: (a) the Library should provide a comprehensive literature searching and current awareness service for the many lecturers who were having to prepare lectures in new subject areas; (b) because of the importance of the Library to lecturers, it must be adequately staffed and financed; (c) attention must be given to the Library's ability to provide recently published literature, which may necessitate a reconsideration of the current collection development pol icy; (d) research must be encouraged, and the Library upgraded to provide the necessary resources for research.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 126-136). / In this global information age many technological advances have changed approaches to education and the way libraries are managed. The massive increase of unfiltered information has resulted in high demands for information literacy programmes. Therefore, students need to be assisted throughout their learning process. The result of this change is the shift from teacher-centered type of learning to student-centered learning. The gap between the library and the classroom needs to be bridged by insisting on the use of information literacy skills and by promoting cooperation and collaboration of efforts between the teaching staff and the library. The learning organizations need to realize the need to embed information literacy within their curriculum to enhance quality education. The transformation requires libraries to embark on student learning and empower students with necessary information literacy skills. This issue of empowering students with necessary skills had become a motivating factor that drove me to carry out this research in order to find out the status and level of information literacy for postgraduate students of NUL. Information literacy standards were used as a measure. The study used a combination of both qualitative and quantitative research methods. A questionnaire was used as a main data collection instrument and the results were measured against the American Library Association (ALA) information literacy standards. Interviews were also conducted at NUL to supplement the main data collection instrument. Findings reflect a moderate to poor performance of a group of postgraduate and senior Law students who participated in this survey study. Findings from interviews provided evidence that NUL is aware of the concept of information literacy.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 67-74). / Electronic resources represent a large portion of many libraries' information resources in the current climate of hybrid libraries where print and electronic formats coexist. Since the dramatic uptake of electronic resources in libraries during the 1990's the topic of usage statistics has been on librarians' lips. The expectations that librarians had of being able to compare resources based on usage statistics were soon dashed as it became apparent that electronic resource providers were not measuring usage uniformly. Given the initial disappointments that librarians had in terms of electronic resource usage statistics the author set out to find the reasons why librarians were keeping statistics for electronic resources, which statistics they were keeping for electronic resources, and what were the issues and concerns with regard to statistics for electronic resources. To get an international answer to these questions a literature review was undertaken. The South African point of view was sought through an e-mail survey that was sent out to the 23 South African academic libraries that form the South African National Library and Information Consortium (SANLiC). A 65% response rate was recorded. The international and South African answers to the three questions were very similar. The study found that the reasons why librarians keep electronic resources statistics were to "assess the value of different online products/services"; to "make better-informed purchasing decisions"; to "plan infrastructure and allocation of resources"; and to "support internal marketing and promotion of library services". The study also found that the statistics that librarians were keeping are: sessions, searches, documents downloaded, turnaways, location of use, number of electronic resources, expenditure and virtual visits. The number of virtual visits was kept by international libraries but no South African libraries reported keeping this information. The concerns that were raised by both international and South African libraries were found to be about: the continued lack of standardisation; the time-consuming nature of data collection; the reliability of the usage data; the fact that the data need to be looked at in context; the management of the data; and how to count electronic resources. Clear definitions of the latter are essential. A concern raised in South Africa but not in the international literature is that there exists a lack of understanding amongst some South African librarians of the basic concepts of electronic resources usage statistics. The author concludes with a suggestion that the CHELSA Measures for Quality be implemented so that librarians can see that the collection of usage data for electronic resources has some purpose. Once this is in place one or more training events under the auspices of SANLiC should be organised in order to train librarians in the best practice of electronic resource usage statistics.

Bibliography: leaves 212-223. / With very few exceptions, all libraries, be they national, university, provincial, municipal or special, are funded to a greater or lesser degree by public money. Thus as Malan says, this subsidy presupposes that their services and stock should be used in the public interest. (Malan, 1978:83). In the case of South African university libraries, which constitutes the province of this study, the parent institution currently receives a subsidy according to the provisions laid down in the van Wyk de Vries Commission's recommendations. (de Vries, 1974). Included in this subsidy are formulae designed specifically to enable the university library to operate, i.e. allowances are made both for personnel and for the acquisition of library materials. It is in this latter connection that the present inves- tigation has been made, viz. the allocation of funds received from the State via the university administration to the teaching and research units to enable them to fulfil their basic function.